In general, present day telephone systems are increasingly using wireless technology for long distance calls and, in some instances, have begun the use of digital technology; however, no system in general use today has been capable of providing effective and efficient wireless digital technology for local calls to and from individual subscribers. Such technology has been disclosed in various recent patents commonly owned by the present applicants"" assignee, as, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,644,561, dated Feb. 17, 1987 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,675,863, dated Jun. 23, 1987. The technology disclosed in these patents provides base stations in communication with both a central office and a plurality of subscriber stations utilizing digital wireless time division circuits wherein there are repetitive sequential slot positions in a transmit channel bit stream/each slot being associated with a particular subscriber.
The base stations used in the above time division system are relatively complex and expensive but economically feasible for a large system serving a large number of subscribers; however, for relatively small systems serving a relatively small number of subscribers it may be economically infeasible. In addition, such a system utilizes a pair of frequencies, one for transmission and one for reception, and, in view of the limited amount of channels available in the spectrum, it would be highly advantageous if only one frequency could be effectively used.
It is, therefore, an object, of the present invention to provide what may be called a simulated or emulated base station which can be effectively substituted for an actual base station in certain situations.
Another object is to provide a system that can be utilized for plural subscribers but which is operable on only a single frequency.
Other objects will become apparent from the following description and claims.
In essence, the system of the present invention utilizes what is, in effect, a modified subscriber station to act as a simulated or emulated base station, thereby considerably decreasing the total cost and complexity of the system. This emulated base station essentially differs from the subscriber station only in being able to initiate the synchronization process, whereas the subscriber unit only acts to scan the RF signals sent out by the emulated base station until it finds the frequency and slot assigned to it. In the intervals between transmissions of the RF signals the emulated base station is adapted to receive RF signals from the subscriber units. In this manner, the subscriber unit may either talk to the emulated base station which then acts as another subscriber station, or it may talk to another subscriber station that has been synchronized therewith by the emulated base station.